The Zeiss Ikon Nettar epitomises slow photography, it's basic to the point of being primitive but the results can be excellent.
Having bought a Mamiya C330f and then, through GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) added four more lens pairs, various viewfinders and other accessories, the bag was getting rather large and very heavy. But I loved the square format and couldn't afford any of the more recent compact medium format cameras, like the Fuji GF670. So I decided to go for a much cheaper 6x6 folding camera, a Zeiss Ikon Nettar. I bought it from Etsy for the comparatively high price of about £150 but it was cosmetically in excellent condition, and fully working. It's a 518/16 which means it's 6x6 and has double exposure prevention. There's no rangefinder, no exposure meter, everything is manual However the first film showed a focus problem, it was focussing much closer than I had set it to. You focus by guessing the distance and setting the lens to that distance using the scale on the lens. A friend of mine gave me a rangefinder that fits on the cold shoe and I shot another roll of film - again some of the pictures were out of focus.
I resorted to taping a piece of opaque plastic across the film plane where the film would be, setting the shutter on "B" and checking the focus with a loupe. Sure enough, it was wrong. So I undid the three tiny screws holding the front of the lens in place, turned it a bit and tried again. After many attempts I felt sure I had got it right, and shot another roll. This was going really well until I foolishly changed the shutter speed after cocking the shutter. Sometimes this can break the shutter and that's exactly what happened. I developed the film and the results seemed good up to that point. The film had been shot in Whitstable Harbour on a misty afternoon and were certainly atmospheric!
I sent the camera away to Sendean Cameras who mended it for me and properly collimated the lens so the focus was accurate. This cost £240, making probably the most expensive Nettar in history. But they did throw in a leather case for the camera, which they had on a shelf for some time waiting for a 518/16 to come in.
The next roll of film I shot was colour, at the ruins of a local gunpowder works. This time I had not only a better rangefinder but also a Weston Euromaster exposure meter, fully refurbished and with a new selenium cell, from Ian Partridge. Results were excellent! I'm looking forward to using this pocket medium format camera more.
